United Way International

United Way International is a nonprofit organization providing leadership and services to a network of member United Ways, donors and partner organizations across the world.

History of United Way International

United Way International was created more than 30 years ago, in 1974, with the express mission of serving and growing the United Way movement worldwide.

The United Way concept was founded in Colorado, USA in 1887. In the mid 1900s local United Ways founded a national organization, later called United Way of America, to support them with training, coordination, advocacy, the sharing of best practices, and more.

By 1974, there were enough United Way organizations outside the United States to demand the same support. Its staff speaks 8 languages, with a Board of Directors from more than 7 countries, working with member organizations in 47 countries and territories outside the US.

Global expansion

Visitors to the US from other countries found value in the United Way model and brought it home, first to Canada, then to South Africa and Australia in the 1920s.

The United Way network covered 20 countries by 1990, then followed a boom. Since 1990, United Ways have been created in 23 more countries. The newest will appear in 2008 in Argentina, St. Kitts and France, along with 8 more cities throughout India.

The most common key missions of global United Ways has been to provide, assist or promote:

* Community needs assessments
* Information and referral to human service agencies
* Fostering information exchange and collaboration among service agencies
* Community-wide fundraising campaigns inviting all people to give, and not just the wealthy
* Organizational activities and money managed according to a strategy, a budget, and strict financial controls
* Community-wide planning councils, bringing agencies, donors, city leaders and other groups to a single table to address problems together
* Allocation of funds to carefully-investigated agencies, based on the community councils’ strategies
* Volunteerism

External links

* [http://www.uwint.org/ Official Webpage of United Way International]